As said above - I don't think skipping powerups is of a huge benifit in this game.

I want to put a list together of what bosses can be skipped though.

Still doing my first playthrough so afterwards I'm gonna be doing some more speedrun tech finding.

I have been using the kick-back from the cannon into an air-jump (double jump) into gliding to traverse horizontally in the cathedral to great effect.

I have seen one wall clip so far:

Not sure if it will be helpful.

Another interesting one:

Sounds good Simon.

I will put in the rules 6000 cycles OR LESS, as if people run on a standard 3000 cycle count that is fine, it is only a detriment for them.

In regards to start and finish times, the standard time is first input to last input. Also some versions of the game do not have the final sequence where they kiss (this is within the game as a separate level).

Start: I would say start button pressed. Finish: I would say exit of level 20 (when black screen is seen).

Some decision needs to be made on the number of cycles for DOS Box with this run.

I believe my run was made on the standard cycles of 3000. SimonN's run was made on 6000 cycles.

A few questions to answer:

SimonN - why did you choose 6000? What are the effects on cycles on game speed (will need some investigation)?

Can we find out what is closest the original game? Otherwise we'll need to just decide upon the best speed (if it makes a difference).

Just an interesting note:

I did some estimations on time based upon the current IL boards (10 seconds lost at start - 11 seconds after each level - 2 seconds per intentional death).

Here is a comparison between ILs vs my Sum of Best vs the current WR.

End of Chapter 1 WR - 7:54 SoB - 7:33 IL Times - 7:03

End of Chapter 2 WR - 14:22 SoB - 13:49 IL Times - 12:54

End of Chapter 3 WR - 21:32 SoB - 20:30 IL Times - 18:44

End of Chapter 4 WR - 28:19 SoB - 26:55 IL Times - 24:34

Final Time WR - 37:25 SoB - 35:57 IL Times - 32:43

So the lowest current limit is 32:43 if you can do every level like an IL.

Yeah I've noticed you cant see a lot on your videos. It makes it look more impressive because obstacles appear much quicker.

Have you thought of doing a non-hardcore any% run? It is much more forgiving so you can try riskier strats.

1

BTW - my vote is for 1 or 3.

Kongsbirk,

Yes I know of the level 18 skip. This is 100% fine to do. This is a pure speed-tech situation and there is no downside to doing it.

If Android/IOS is the quickest version then that is fine, people not running on Android are just at a disadvantage.

Saying that for an any% run, I think it would even out. Android/IOS has the level 18 skip and I think has easier box double-jumps (I think this has to do with frame-rates). PS4/PC has quicker loading times.

Hi guys - this is a rule which we need to look into, whether it is valid or not.

It is for IL runs only. The reason it is not used in standard runs is that it does not save any time RTA (it actually loses time).

At certain locations, you can die. If you press pause on the SAME FRAME as dieing, you will respawn, you will be paused, but it the environment will continue. While you are paused, the in-game timer does not continue.

This means you can respawn on a platform and it will move. You will move through the level while the timer is not operating.

These have not been used yet. Here are 3 places they can be used. The first doesnt save time. The 2nd and 3rd do.

The 3rd one lets the lava be moved to open the new gate while the timer is not operating.

Should this be allowed:

Option 1: Yes.

Reason: ILs go off in-game timer no matter what. These are frame-perfect tricks so add another level of difficulty.

Option 2: No.

Reason: It is not increasing speed, it is actually decreasing RTA speed to stop the timer. Also we may not want a frame perfect trick to make a valid run.

Option 3: Adjust times to always be non-paused time.

Add the amount of time that the game was paused onto the run time in the leaderboards.

Everyone please vote below.

Hi guys - this is a rule which we need to look into, whether it are valid or not.

It is for IL runs only. The reason it is not used in standard runs is that it does not save any time RTA.

When you finish levels 16 and 20, you can pause the timer. In level 16, you pause the timer when you land at the end. You wait about 5 seconds and it finishes the level (saves about 5 seconds)

On level 20, you pause when you hit the switch, you pause. You wait 40 seconds and it finished the level (saving 40 seconds).

How it works is it stops the in-game timer, however the end of level timer keeps going?

Here is it in action:

My run was not great - however it blows away everyone on the leaderboard.

Kongsbirk has also used it partially in level 16.

Should this be allowed:

Option 1: Yes.

Reason: ILs go off in-game timer no matter what. It has already been used by Kongsbirk.

Option 2: No.

Reason: It is not increasing speed, it is just pausing it. Everyone's run would have to be rerun to include this new timer stop.

Option 3: Adjust times to always be non-paused time (or paused time).

If I get a 2:44 using the pause skip, the time on the leaderboard is 3:24.

Everyone please vote below.

The Dren glitch is as follows:

Play the game as per 'normal' and get to the Pride before a Fall quest where you need to kill Dren.

Prior to getting there, make sure your character acquires some vampiric attack buffs. There are 3 potions of vampiric damage and a sword/dagger in Rathir. These are likely not the best options available, would need to search around. The higher the vampiric damage, the better.

So, go to Dren, talk and fight (do not at any time initiate the request to drop the magic shields).

Basically, the magical shields on your character and Dren's will block out >99% of all damage, except vampiric damage. Use the vampiric weapon and use the vampiric potions when you can do max damage to Dren. This fight will still likely take about 2-3 minutes (might be able to get time down with better vampiric items as more vampiric = more damage).

Dren will keep trying to talk to you, keep going back to fighting without dropping the shields. When you kill him, you will keep your shield for the rest of the game making you 'invincible' (it also looks cool).

So basically you can keep the shield and only take minimal damage for the rest of the run. You can finish the game at a super-low level, killing many many higher level enemies.

The issues for a speedrun - killing enemies who are red-named takes WAY TOO LONG. And on top of this, the whole end of the game is unavoidably killing enemies.

If someone can find a way to kill high-level enemies quicker, this may be a viable strat for the speedrun as the 3 minutes taken to kill Dren can be saved by skipping a huge bunch of XP from killing enemies.

Hope this helps develop a new strat :)

So I looked into this game a long time ago. I found some things but didn't like the grind that I suspected was in the run.

So, what major glitches have been found, whether used in runs or not used?

When I looked it up I completed a routing run to see the lowest level I could complete the game at. I gained Dren's 'invincibility' and finished the game at a character level around 9-13 (i really cant remember but I could look it up if I plugged my PS3 back in). Unfortunately this slowed the game down tremendously as fighting against red opponents is just sssoooo sssllllooooowwwww.

There were some XP farming methods but again these were very grindy.

I found some cases of useless wall glitches but nothing I could use in a run.

Has anyone found others? Has anyone tried anything similar to using Dren invincibility or is it just too slow?

TBH I am no longer interested in running this, but since I put in the time previously I was curious to see what had been found.

One more skip.

I did a few videos last night. These are pretty slow in video but should be quick with a bit of practice.

I am going to start running this (or at least keep skip finding).

You don't need to make the grappling hook in the 2nd level. You can climb the cliff and will be automatically be given it at the start of 3rd level.

The Sticky Bomb is BROKEN. You can plant one under a crate, jump on the grate and get launched. I have skipped at least one section using this but this will let you skip many many more. I will be doing some experiments with this.

Lastly when approaching someone from behind, if you don't stealth and instead jump, you can jump on their back and don't lose time moving in stealth.

I am currently planning to submit a bunch of youtube annotated ILs in the guides section. This will be a little long-term as I will need to re-record almost all IL levels.

Will be simple but hopefully helpful.

So the new Glitch has been sorted. It is actually a warp. If you are hanging off a ledge that despawns, when you next try to move it warps you to another ledge (closest?? not sure).

I have done this in two locations.

This obviously has huge potential if the right ledge can be despawned.

So some videos:

Fun and games with out of the frying pan (no speedrunning potential):

Your suggestion from above Thrillness (most likely no speedrun potential but you never know):

New things in the treasure vault (big speedrun skip potential):

I have one more thing to show with the treasure vault, unfortunately I didn't capture it so it should go up over the weekend.

So a few things:

1. You can now run all the way through the jeep area. It loads in correctly when you run far enough down the road. You can make it all the way to the final bridge. After the final bridge you fall to your doom.

2. you were partly right Thrillness. You can use photo mode to buffer elena out without her dieing while you hang from the wall. However you need to enter chapter 15 otherwise the puzzle room doesn't load. Everything gets a little funky outside.

3. I am super close to achieving a 'Hey Bule' Skip in Chapter 16. I am 90% sure it is possible. There are 2 possible methods which may work (one may be a painful sky launch, the other easy if I can get it).

4. Oh and BTW Sky Launches work.

5. You still cannot skip collecting all checkpoints in chapter 6.

Anyway it is after midnight and I have work the next day. I have a ton of footage which I will have to get from twitch to youtube but if anyone is interested they are on my twitch channel twitch.com/covert_madness